I have several vintage machines that sew a beautiful stitch. I have seen so many of my sewing friends buy the thousands of dollars new machines and never use 1/4 of the features. The maintenance is expensive and when the warranty runs out WAM, the cost is outrageous to fix it. One friend's Bernina 830 had a sensor go out a week after the warranty. It cost her over $500, in the shop for over six weeks waiting for the part. I'd rather buy an inexpensive machine, sew it death and then buy a new one about every two years. I oil and clean them and that's all. Even the cheaper machines have the features I want.